This week, with the possible cancellation of the entire NBA season looming, ESPN compensates for lack of conventional basketball coverage with a sporadically funny brainstorming session imagining ways that the Atlantic Yards-bound (Marty Markowitz-announced?) Brooklyn Nets might court hipsters, "Brooklyn's largest demographic."
All ESPN's suggestions take the form of phone pole tear-away flyers, and though most are unfunny—like jokes about beards and obscure musical tastes—a couple hit the mark, like...
There's also a fake flyer with a picture of Steve Nash wearing a fedora, promising to acquire the Canadian MVP in a trade. Is it his hat or his presumed ancestry of bearded, flannel-wearing Canadian lumberjacks that's supposed to make him appealing to the hipster demographic? Either way, ESPN's worst idea for the Nets' hipster-courting campaign is this joke about playing ironically, which would only be funny if the team's last winning season hadn't happened half a decade ago.